Vallilath Madhathil Madhavan Nair (8 October 1919 – 6 October 2021) was an Indian civil servant and diplomat. He was the last living officer from either the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

or the

Indian Political Service The Indian Political Department (IPD), formerly known as the Foreign and Political Department of the Government of India, was a government department in British India. It originated in a resolution passed on 13 September 1783 by the board of direc ...

Background and family

Nair was born into a distinguished family of civil servants and lawyers; his father Chettur Karunakaran Nair was an

Indian Imperial Police The Indian Imperial Police, referred to variously as the Imperial Police or simply the Indian Police or, by 1905, Imperial Police, was part of the Indian Police Services, the uniform system of police administration in British Raj, as established by ...

officer who served as a district superintendent in the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

. His uncle

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

C. Madhavan Nair was a judge of the Madras High Court who served as Advocate-General of Madras from 1923 to 1924, while his great-uncle Sir

C. Sankaran Nair Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, CIE (11 July 1857 – 24 April 1934) was a lawyer who also served as a President of the Indian National Congress in 1897 at the meeting held at Amravati. He wrote ''Gandhi and Anarchy'' (1922). Early life and educati ...

was President of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

in 1897 and Advocate-General of Madras from 1906 to 1908. He was married to Krishnakumari Nair and has two children, a son and a

daughter A daughter is a female offspring; a girl or a woman in relation to her parents. Daughterhood is the state of being someone's daughter. The male counterpart is a son. Analogously the name is used in several areas to show relations between groups ...

. After his retirement, he resided in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

Education and early career

He was educated at

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

and at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

. In July 1942, he was selected for the second-to-last batch of the

, both the smallest-ever batch of the ICS and the last for which direct nominations were made by the

India Office The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of I ...

in London. He was subsequently posted to Bihar Province as an assistant collector and magistrate. In 1946, he transferred to the Foreign and Political Department (the Indian Political Service).

Tibet initiative

As a deputy secretary, Nair and his colleagues in the Department of External Affairs were involved in a British initiative to supply arms to Tibet. With Indian independence imminent, the British government determined to maintain a certain level of influence in the largely autonomous state and gain some leverage over the Chinese government, even to the extent of arming "peace-loving monks". In February 1946, British political agents encouraged Tibet to purchase 382,162 rupees (£28,662. 3s. 0d.; equivalent to £ in ). worth of weapons. The suggested purchases, intended to equip a brigade-level force, included 2- and 3-inch mortars, Bren and Sten guns, rifles and Verey pistols. Though this shipment was delivered to Lhasa in May 1947, some difficulties remained over approvals for ammunition. On 5 August 1947, Nair observed any disturbances in Tibet would have geopolitical consequences in areas bordering both India and Pakistan. He suggested both governments send Tibet ammunition from their joint supply ahead of partition. This was done, and the ammunition arrived in Tibet in January 1948.

Later career

After Indian independence, Nair transferred to the newly organised

Indian Foreign Service The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is the 34th and the ...

and was promoted to senior under-secretary by 1949. He was then posted to the Cairo embassy as first secretary, where he was appointed acting ''

charge d'affaires Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqua ...

'' on 19 April 1951. Over the course of his career, Nair held the following appointments: *Deputy Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs (24 August 1953) *Deputy High Commissioner of India to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

(12 August 1955) *Acting High Commissioner of India to Ceylon (6 October 1956 to 8 April 1957) *Commissioner of India to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and the

Federation of Malaya The Federation of Malaya ( ms, Persekutuan Tanah Melayu; Jawi script, Jawi: ) was a federation of what previously had been British Malaya comprising eleven states (nine Malay states and two of the British Empire, British Straits Settlements, P ...

(2 May 1957) *High Commissioner of India to the Federation of Malaya and Commissioner of India to Singapore (12 September 1957 to 20 June 1958) *Ambassador of India to

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

(relinquished 3 August 1960) *Ambassador of India to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

(10 December 1960) *Ambassador of India to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

(24 June 1967) *Ambassador of India to

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

and accredited to Tunisia (15 January 1971) *Ambassador of India to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

(13 February 1975)

Death

Nair died on 6 October 2021 at the age of 101 in his flat in Mayur Vihar Phase I, two days before his 102nd birthday.

References

External links

Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nair, V. M. M. 1919 births 2021 deaths Ambassadors of India to Cambodia Ambassadors of India to Poland Ambassadors of India to Morocco Ambassadors of India to Spain High Commissioners of India to Sri Lanka Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Indian Foreign Service officers Indian centenarians Indian civil servants Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Men centenarians People from Mangalore India–Tibet relations